An Evening in Cold Springs

Cold springs is just one of those towns you just don't see anymore.  There isn't a Walmart or a Chilli's,
it's only small mom and pop shops with unique
gifts and everyday needs.

I feel like I need a partridge family song 

playing in the back ground as we walk down Main Street.

Yeah they have a Main Street, 

can't get much more apple pie than that. 

After stopping in a shop or two we walked down to the
Cold Springs Train Depot Restaurant

We asked for a seat tucked away in the back just incase one of our children have an embarrassing Oh-my-god-throw-myself-on-the-ground temper tantrum but neither one did.
Come to think of it, it's very rare that that ever happens but now that I type that on a blog intended for the world to see you'll be sure that the next time we're out in
public this type of tantrum will happen.

We were sitting right on ground level to the train tracks so every time a train was about to come by they would beep their horn and Jack would make this face....

He would then look up at me and say.....
"oh mama train is comin"

And then watch it go by in half shock / half terror mode.  

Jack was in his train obsessed glory.

 

Oh my smiley, smiley Emma.

 

And what summer night is complete without ice cream.  I let Jack pick out his flavor again and he asked for Chocolate Chip so that's what we had. 

Then Chris worked it off by pushing 100lbs of kid and stroller back up Main street, thank god for husbands.

 

This was just one of those perfect summer night that I will always remember and I hope that my kids
will do with their kids one day.

Emma Girl is 4 Months Old

Our little (big) girl is 4 months old!!

We had her 4 month appointment last week and she's weighing in at a whopping 16lbs 11oz and 24 1/2" long which means 

she's short and chubby. 

Her rolls have rolls. 

Either she's already starting to sit up on her own or her belly is so big when it rests on her thighs it keeps her upright. 

She's also rolling from front to back and back to front.

And she's reaching for any toy to shove into her mouth hoping milk will come out of it.  

 She's still all smiles!  

I know I say this all the time but I couldn't be more serious.  During this little photo shoot I took 15 photos total and in 11 of them she's got a grin from ear to ear. 

She's also a little chatterbox.  She doesn't stop laughing and talking. She'll talk/screech to anything, mostly to Murphy though who looks at her wags his tail.  

He has no idea that in just a short couple of years she's going to dress him up in all her millions of bow that I'm hoarding and try to ride him around the house like a horse.

Poor Murph.

 She loves when you sing anything, even when Chris sings her the very popular children's tune "Twinkle-twinkle-3-blind-mice" song. 

Oh you've never heard of it...weird.

She's FINALLY sleeping longer then 1 1/2 at a time at night.  I started to put her to sleep on her belly and like a miracle she sleeps from 7:30pm until 2:30am (eats) then 

until 6:30am which I'll take.  

She's going to be my little wild child for sure though, I can see it already, we're in for it.   

We're still going strong breast feeding and it's working so well, she's growing fatter and fatter by the day. It wasn't an easy road to get here but we made it and it's awesome to be able to do this for her and myself.  

And in case you haven't noticed, still no hair. You're going to start seeing me wandering the streets with oversized hot pink polka dot bows in my hair soon. 

Happy Birthday to ME!

So I'm 32...I know I know, impossible I don't look a day past 25. But it's true. 

This year I wanted to celebrate with something that my whole family would enjoy. 

So we went to Muscoot Farms in Katonah to see all the different farm animals.

This turned out to be a very cool thing to do and since it was free it shoots to the top of my places to waste time list.  

 Doesn't this look like a painting with the clouds and the trees....it was a really beautiful day. 

 Our first stop was the Pig Pen and to our surprise there were 9 little piglets playing and squealing all over the place.  Jack was really enjoying it until the Mama pig made the "dinner squeal" and all the piggies came running for food.  It was such a cool thing to watch nature take control like that and since I'm still nursing Emma it was even that more fascinating .  Until I turned and looked at my horrified 2 year old.  Jack got so scared because all the piglets were making so much noise and they were all pushing a shoving that it did look more like an attack then a meal.  So we moved on. 

 "This is a Lion" 

according to Jack this very hairy goat was a Lion.  We tried to tell him that it was a goat but he kept pointing at it and telling us very matter-of-factly that 

"This is a Lion" 

So we agreed to disagree.

 Me and my babies. 

This is one of my favorites from the day.

 It's so cool to watch Jack grow up, now when we tell him to smile he gives us a big cheese grin.  Little things like that always amaze me and I can't quite explain why. 

 We spent some time in the garden until I looked around and realized we were surrounded by bees so we high tailed it out of there....the flowers were prettier from afar. 

 After we walked all around the farm and saw all the animals we took a break and enjoyed some ice cream.

  

I remember when I was little and I was handed an ice cream cone my face lit up like you just handed me keys to a brand new car.  

Thats what jacks face looked like when we let him pick out what ice cream he wanted.  

Then his face looked like this.....

Chris took us all out to dinner at one of our favorite places.

Birdsall House in Peekskill

We sat outside and enjoyed some really good food and both the kids were on their best behavior 

 This is Jack putting Sophie to bed and giving her a kiss good night. 

 This is Emma's "mad face" cause Jack took Sophie from her. 

And of course because one sugar filled treat for the day just wasn't enough, we had some birthday cake.  I wonder when Jacks going to learn that whenever we sing happy birthday it's not always his birthday.  

Oh well, at least he didn't spit on the cake trying to blow out the candle.

When I woke up that morning and Chris asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday I said

"I want a picture with my babies"

And that's exactly what he gave me......

AND AN IPAD (yayayayayayayayayayyaay)

My 3 1/2 month old is a CIA officer

Do you want to know why I know this....

Because she's practicing sleep deprivation techniques on me. 

I feel like I'm always trying to figure out why. 

Why does Jack always find the day old milk behind the couch and think it's a good idea to drink it,

 Why do kids think ceiling fans are funny,

Why won't my sweet daughter sleep?!?!

Some times in the middle of the night I'll hear low muahhhhhhh type laugh come from her crib and then the sleep deprivation training will start. 

  

This little ball of chubb rolls and happiness isn't going to put one past me...Oh no Missy

Your cover is blown sweet sweet girl...

Mama always knows the truth 

Full Time Employee....Part Time Mom?

Tomorrow morning I join the land of the "working-dead".  The every day routine of getting up and going to a job, coming home eating dinner with your family and 

then going to bed only to do it all over again the next day. 

It actually sort of seems maddening when I think about it.

  

You remember when you were little and people would ask you what you wanted to be, and you said an astronaut, fireman or a princess well ever since I figured out that I color inside the lines pretty well I've wanted to be an artist.  

I probably am one of the few people that can say I absolutely love what I do. 

But after having my babies and spending 12 weeks to get to know them and help them figure out this crazy life I find it harder and harder to leave them to go back to an honest paying job.

  

I know I'm not alone feeling this. 

There has to be mamas out there that have thought about leaving their dream jobs to be with there babies. I love where I work and the people I work with so it makes it easier to go back and join them. You spend so much time with them, they really do become a second family to you and I honestly miss them. 

I'm also very fortunate to have my own mother and mother-in-law to help me and Chris raise our babies.  I am SO grateful and lucky to have such a wonderful family.  It makes it a little easier to leave them with two people that love them as much as I do.  

 So how does a woman balance the two,  Her amazing job and her amazing babies?  Is there time in the day to do both jobs well?  Or does one always take a back seat to the other?  These are questions I'm sure a lot of mamas have asked themselves and I struggle to find the answers to everyday. 

 There really isn't a stronger love for anything then what I have for my babies. 

Tonight I'll be praying for a smooth morning, Emma sleeping through the night (yeah right) and the strength to be able to do both jobs fully and with as little tears as I can (hopefully).  

Mama loves you both and she'll be home as soon as she can!  

Its Impossible to count her smiles

Ms. Emma turned 3 months old today and her eyes are 

still blue YAY!!  

Chris may have hope of staying my husband after all. 

 She's still only got 4 strands of hair so I resort to headbands that I buy or make myself.  In these pictures I put a newborn size headband on her - and with her gigantic irish skull they come close to cutting off circulation....but she looks pretty.  

 So you know how when people don't sleep and they 

become slap happy?  

They're always smiling and laughing at everything even if it's not remotely funny....

I believe this is Emma. 

She is so smilie and she sleeps so little, it's the only conclusion I can come to.

But we're both adjusting to the choppy sleep patterns and I hope sleeping is something she'll master soon. 

 

 

She's also such a nosey little thing, she always wants to be in the middle of everything and if she's bored she'll let you know with what I call her high pitch "get me the hell out of this thing" cry.  It was really alarming the first couple of times but now I know that if she's done in the exer-saucer she'll let me know that we need to move onto the next activity with this blood curdling yell. 

And today is the 3 month anniversary of our breastfeeding journey.  Which took me by surprise with how much of a commitment it is, but I think we've hit a stride and both of us are more confident now then 3 months ago.  I read this article: So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes recently and I found such truth in it so if your into boobie talk and/or feeding your baby give it a read.  

(If you haven't noticed I learned how to use the "Link" button on my blog - I'm so going to be the best blogger)

Side note it's my Mom's birthday today and I truly never realized how much you appreciate your own mom until I became one so, to my Mom: I love you, Thank you for everything you do for me and my family and Happy 37th Birthday!